FRANKLIN — A challenging season for the Andover boys hockey team now has the potential for a Hollywood-type ending.

After being on the outside edge of the Super Eight each of the previous three years, the Golden Warriors finally got rewarded yesterday when they earned their first bid into the elite tournament field during the annual selection and seeding meeting at the MIAA headquarters.

It certainly is quite a turnaround for the Andover program and particularly coach Chris Kuchar, who less than two weeks ago still found himself in the middle of investigations by both the school and the Department of Children and Families before ultimately being cleared of any wrongdoing in both.

Andover not only will be making its first appearance in the tournament, but also earned the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Hingham in Wednesday’s opening round of the modified double-elimination bracket.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Kuchar said after the meeting. “If you had told me a month ago when all this started happening that we were going to be a fifth seed in the Super Eight, I would have said that was highly unlikely. But here we are a month later.”

With Kuchar cleared and able to return behind the bench just nine days ago, the Golden Warriors proceeded to run off four straight wins against fellow Super Eight hopefuls Waltham, Arlington, St. John’s (Shrewsbury) and Newburyport, winning three by shutout.

“The kids really, really held themselves together and are playing with a chip on their shoulder. We’re playing some good hockey,” Kuchar said. “(We’re) just happy that we got the opportunity to be considered. We’ve been knocking on the door the last couple of years, and with the amount of work the kids have put in, especially with the circumstances, it goes to the character and the resiliency that our kids have, to go through all of this and come out on the other end. I couldn’t be happier.”

Central Catholic earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament, followed by BC High and St. John’s Prep. No. 6 Burlington joins Hingham and Andover as the public schools to get automatic berths into the double-elimination bracket.

One team missing from that equation is Pope Francis. The Western Mass. school was a consensus top four team all season, but because of a court injunction involving a pair of Cardinals players, MIAA deputy director Richard Pearson said the board of directors invoked Rule 29.3 from the association’s handbook. The rule states: “Student or teams that have gained court injunctions forcing their entry into MIAA tournaments will be seeded last.”

After Pope Francis was one of five teams to earn a unanimous vote into the tournament, Pearson informed the meeting the decision was made to seed the Cardinals 10th.

“We had been told we would be the 10th seed prior to the meeting today. We were expecting that,” said Pope Francis coach Brian Foley, who noted the Cardinals players also were aware of the situation beforehand and were scheduled to practice yesterday and today.

Pope Francis will play in one of tomorrow’s two play-in games at the Chelmsford Forum, facing No. 7 seed and defending champion Arlington (6 p.m.). No. 8 St. John’s (Shrewsbury) and No. 9 St. Mary’s will meet in the late game (8 p.m.).

A total of 12 teams were nominated, of which 11 either were unanimous selections or advanced to the second round of voting. In the final decision, St. John’s (Shrewsbury) earned the nod over Wellesley, which was hoping to follow Bay State Herget rival Walpole from last year and earn its first tournament selection.

“There’s no perfect process,” Wellesley coach Paul Donato said. “They laid out their criteria and they made the decisions and we’re just happy to be a part of that process.”

Jim Clark has been a member of the Boston Herald's sports department copy desk for more than two decades, and has covered high school hockey and other sports across Massachusetts for the Herald since 2000. A graduate of UMass, Clark is a past winner of Mass. State Hockey Coaches Association's Joel Perlmutter Award, and also has been received honors for coverage of football, soccer and lacrosse.

Jim Clark has been a member of the Boston Herald's sports department copy desk for more than two decades, and has covered high school hockey and other sports across Massachusetts for the Herald since 2000. A graduate of UMass, Clark is a past winner of Mass. State Hockey Coaches Association's Joel Perlmutter Award, and also has been received honors for coverage of football, soccer and lacrosse.